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I have the same problem. Too many foods I love that have carbs. But the carbs rev up my appetite.
I went a few weeks fasting all day and having a good dinner and was surprised that my hunger all day
was better fasting than when I had carbs for breakfast & lunch
Has anyone tried staying low carb all day to manage hunger
and then having a healthy dinner that includes carbs ??
I aim for a "low starch" breakfast for most days of the week. This was helping me with eating less sugar and making better choices for afternoon snacks. Now it doesn't seem to matter, but this helped with building the habits.
The rest of the day I just aim for smaller portions of starches. I definitely can't eat too many if I want to lose weight - based on my own experiments. This means sticking to 1/2-3/4 cup servings at meals and no more than 3-4 of those servings a day. Most of the time I only have the starches at lunch or dinner.
I also find timing matters, and my body reacts differently to each kind. It is generally better for me to have them earlier in the day. More at dinner doesn't seem to like me very much, unless I plan a post-dinner workout. So I try to make the dinner portion of starches a little smaller and less frequent. But I almost always have starches at lunch, and I may also add them in as a snack (i.e. cheese and crackers).
I see the endless Nutri system commercials at the gym and wondered if the food was edible.
In 2010 my husband decided to do this diet and I prepared it for him for 6 months.
He lost weight but I personally could not have eaten 80 % of the food.
They may have improved since then, but most of the entrees were a few steps below
frozen food entrees. He did learn portion control doing the diet.
Look at the shelf stable Hormel/Dinty Moore Microwavable individual entrees in the grocery store near the canned meats to can see what the Nutri System entrees are like.
Instead of doing their diet I would copy the calorie & general format of the diet and
provide your own grocery store foods. Even if you select frozen entrees it would
taste better than Nutri System.
I aim for a "low starch" breakfast for most days of the week. This was helping me with eating less sugar and making better choices for afternoon snacks. Now it doesn't seem to matter, but this helped with building the habits.
The rest of the day I just aim for smaller portions of starches. I definitely can't eat too many if I want to lose weight - based on my own experiments. This means sticking to 1/2-3/4 cup servings at meals and no more than 3-4 of those servings a day. Most of the time I only have the starches at lunch or dinner.
I also find timing matters, and my body reacts differently to each kind. It is generally better for me to have them earlier in the day. More at dinner doesn't seem to like me very much, unless I plan a post-dinner workout. So I try to make the dinner portion of starches a little smaller and less frequent. But I almost always have starches at lunch, and I may also add them in as a snack (i.e. cheese and crackers).
Helpful, thanks.
I am going to try allowing a few small servings a day of healthy carbs
like berries, potatoes and oatmeal and stay away from any empty carbs.
I don't eat bread and sugar anyway and I am learning to use
Shirataki noodles & zucchini noodles to replace pasta.
Helpful, thanks.
I am going to try allowing a few small servings a day of healthy carbs
like berries, potatoes and oatmeal and stay away from any empty carbs.
I don't eat bread and sugar anyway and I am learning to use
Shirataki noodles & zucchini noodles to replace pasta.
There are pastas that have high fiber content. Dreamfields is one, and I believe Healthy Harvest is another. They're white/wheat. You don't have to give up pasta while trying to lose weight. I sure didn't. I eat it pretty regularly, but limit my portions (as with everything, including meat). I stick to 1 cup of pasta/rice per meal, 4-5 oz meat, 1 cup or more of veggies.
There are pastas that have high fiber content. Dreamfields is one, and I believe Healthy Harvest is another. They're white/wheat. You don't have to give up pasta while trying to lose weight. I sure didn't. I eat it pretty regularly, but limit my portions (as with everything, including meat). I stick to 1 cup of pasta/rice per meal, 4-5 oz meat, 1 cup or more of veggies.
I like the Barilla complete and Whole Foods 365 whole wheat/whole grain pastas. They have the right mouthfeel and cook up al dente!
I don't count "produce" in the "carbs" bucket. Those are fair game in most forms. I focus on starches since it is super easy to eat a lot of those. I love rice!
Are you serious about this? I have considered trying it because nothing else has worked. I tried giving up white flour (pasta, bread, rice, etc.), gave up my nightly glass of wine, gave up sugar. Have not lost one single pound. I see the endless Nutri system commercials at the gym and wondered if the food was edible. My goal is to lose 10 - 12 pounds. It doesn't sound like much but my scale simply does not move. If I thought the food was decent and would keep me from feeling hungry, I would give it a try. Since I don't continuously gain weight (I've been stuck at around the same weight for several years), I believe if I lost it, I could maintain the lower weight. Getting there just hasn't worked.
All Nutrisystem is, fundamentally, is a forced calorie counting scheme where they sell you the food. My wife did it years ago, lost weight initially, and once she transitioned off of it, absent the structured menu to keep her focused, gained most of it back.
You don't need a gimmick or diet plan; count calories and adjust accordingly.
I have come to the conclusion that the answer to the title question is yes. You don't have to let it get to the point where you are ravenous, but with recording and watching everything I eat, I am feeling hungry at several times during the day, and I am never really full.
I guess that's good, the way it's supposed to be. It works to keep me from eating for entertainment on work days, since because I can't eat things I really want, I don't care if lunch is nothing but a pile of vegetables. I am just eating them to eat, not to enjoy. They taste good enough, and I like most vegetables, but it's not as if I'm sitting there in the morning anticipating what lunch will be the way I did when it was pizza or a grilled cheese sandwich.
Of course, a pile of vegetables isn't going to hold me till 7 p.m., so I am hungry when I get home. I usually try to have an apple for late afternoon to dim the hunger a bit.
I guess hunger isn't really a bad thing. I can get used to it.
I'm coming around too on my viewpoint. To be sure if you are always satiated you are eating too much. I've recently reduced my food consumption and now it's not unusual for me to experience a little hunger at bedtime. I don't let it bother me. I just go to sleep.
I've been on a plateau for a few months despite eating modest food portions and working out 3-4 times/week. Last week I cut out liquor entirely (wine) and discovered that evidently wine was enhancing my appetite. Or maybe it's just that I savor food more when sipping wine. Whatever, dinner became uninteresting and a few evenings I ate Lean Cuisine with water to drink and the short rations didn't bother me. I miss my delicious dinners served with wine, but felt it was worth a sacrifice for the sake of a little personal experimenting.
I was shocked yesterday when I weighed myself and discovered I had lost 6-7 pounds in about 6 days! I was so surprised that I double and triple checked. I don't even understand how I could lose so much weight in such a short time. I'm wondering if alcohol doesn't cause water retention. Did I really lose that much weight?
Whatever, I had dinner out last night and had a couple drinks and didn't sleep very well. I'm back to no alcohol today and think I'll stick with it for a while except when dining out, which I do rarely. It's worth the sacrifice for me if I can get back to my previous healthy weight. I'm going to follow this program for the time being, perhaps having alcohol 1-2 times per week, and only in moderation.
I have come to the conclusion that the answer to the title question is yes. You don't have to let it get to the point where you are ravenous, but with recording and watching everything I eat, I am feeling hungry at several times during the day, and I am never really full.
I guess that's good, the way it's supposed to be. It works to keep me from eating for entertainment on work days, since because I can't eat things I really want, I don't care if lunch is nothing but a pile of vegetables. I am just eating them to eat, not to enjoy. They taste good enough, and I like most vegetables, but it's not as if I'm sitting there in the morning anticipating what lunch will be the way I did when it was pizza or a grilled cheese sandwich.
Of course, a pile of vegetables isn't going to hold me till 7 p.m., so I am hungry when I get home. I usually try to have an apple for late afternoon to dim the hunger a bit.
I guess hunger isn't really a bad thing. I can get used to it.
I as well have discovered on my low carb - calorie restricted diet that is OK to 'feel' hungry at times during the course of the day. Its not like you are punishing yourself or causing irreversible harm.
You simply are semi fasting for lengths of time between meals. You get busy with work - or have an evening plan that does not allow time for a bite to eat before hand, or as mostly with me I go golfing ( usually a 5+ hour affair start to finish ) and I am famished by the time I am done. I do not like golfing immedioately after eating. So usually have an empty stomach PRIOR to golfing, so 5 hours later I am quite hungry.
Its perfectly normal and a great way to force your body to tap into your stored fat for energy.
The reward is you can have a nice meal and still not feel like you are full even immediately after eating
Wow! I had no idea a golfing session took that long!
I certainly agree that exercising on a full stomach is a bad idea. Immediately after eating your blood and energy flow to your digestive system to begin digesting your meal. This takes blood and energy away from your muscles, exactly what you don't want to happen. If you exercise on a full stomach your body is confused, trying to split energy and blood flow between digestive system. This is very bad, and it's the reason for the safety rule that a person should not go swimming during a full hour following a meal, because they may get muscle cramps—which is something that could cause a drowning.
Plus, I just feel all logy and sluggish after a meal, and feel absolutely like not wanting to exercise. Just guessing, that sluggish feeling is probably because the blood and energy flow to your digestive system probably reduces both to your brain too.
I find too that exercise depresses my appetite for a short period of time afterwards, perhaps 30-60 minutes. If you are on a diet you might parlay this into eating a smaller meal then if you don't get rebound hunger later, or if you can deal with the rebound hunger without eating more food.
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